​You probably saw the bizarre story this week, ably reported by Sharon Hill at Doubtful News, that the mummy of a space alien had been found in Peru. At first glance, the supposed extraterrestrial corpse looks more like a fake badly sculpted in plaster. However, I am more interested in the story behind the claim, notably the involvement of frequent hoaxer Jaime Maussan, who was involved in last year’s demon fairy hoax with L. A. Marzulli as well as the Roswell Slides fraud. The supposed discovery of the mummy was announced on none other than Gaia TV, the former on-demand yoga channel that now plays host to vanity projects from several of the Ancient Aliens talking heads as part of a corporate effort to be a subscription service for ancient astronaut believers, a strategy tied to its founder’s longstanding obsession with ancient astronauts.

​If the scans of the corpse showing a skeleton within are genuine, I fear that someone has intentionally desecrated a corpse to make it look “alien” by amputating fingers (to create an analog to the similar three-fingered alien “claw” that made headlines a few months back) and creating a fake death mask to give the relatively normal-seeming skull a non-human appearance.

I suppose claiming that the body belongs to a space alien is a good way of avoiding prosecution for mishandling human remains.

I also want to point out a strange story that I saw linked this morning atMysterious Universe. Last week, archaeologists announced the discovery of a medieval Ethiopian city famed for its far-flung trade network, which stretched all the way to India and China. However, the city is more interesting to us because it is yet another example of the widespread phenomenon of local people attributing the works of collapsed prior cultures to giants.

According to Prof. Timothy Insoll of the University of Exeter, the locals had developed a legend of giants because the stones used in the ruins of the old city were quite large:

The archaeological findings suggest this place was home to a very mixed community. Local people were extremely keen for us to solve mysteries. Farmers had been finding strange objects, including Chinese coins, as they were working on their land, and a legend began that the area was home to giants. We have obviously disproved that, but I’m not sure they fully believe us yet. Some people have said the bodies we have discovered are the children of giants!

The most surprising thing about this is that such claims still exist in the present, when even the most remote area of the world have cellphone service. But in all other respects, this story is virtually identical to claims found all over the world. Pausanias reported that the residents around Mycenaean ruins attributed those ancient works to the Cyclopes, a mythic race of giants. Along the fringes of the former Roman Empire, Roman walls, forts, and other material remains acquired an association with giants and/or the devil. Geoffrey of Monmouth attributed Stonehenge to giants for similar reasons.

I'm afraid that may be an actual human mummy that has been altered for the sake of a hoax. Between this and the Roswell slides, I wonder how much longer people are going to allow the desecration of human remains. Shameful.

I can't believe an ancient trade center has been discovered in Ethiopia and the writer of the Mysterious Universe article said:

"Children of giants? Sure would be a lot more interesting than beads."

Really!? Prof. Insoll said, "This discovery revolutionizes our understanding of trade in an archaeologically neglected part of Ethiopia." And that is less interesting than a local giant myth?

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Richard P

6/22/2017 01:46:36 pm

As a Peruvian, this makes me frickin' angry. It does look fake, but I hope these bastards did not actually mutilate a real mummy to make this.

According to a Peruvian newspaper, only one of the scientists supposedly studying the mummy is actually reliable, and it's the one that did not go to Peru to observe it directly. The other ones are a Russian scientist that according to this newspaper is also famous for taking pictures of the soul abandoning the body (which he hasn't shown anyone else, of course) and a Mexican doctor who shows up a lot in conferences about alien life, some of which have also had Maussan as a guest.

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Bob Jase

6/22/2017 03:05:17 pm

Why giants?

Because to children adults seem like giants. And some people never get over that. Talking with my son last year he remembered his grandfather as much taller than me and he was crushed when I told him that we were actually the same height.

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Americanegro

6/22/2017 03:43:25 pm

Sounds like you carry a genetic disorder causing people in your male line to misperceive heights and generalize from their own genetically defective experience.

Based on the fact that Alien Autopsy was totally real, this Peruvian thing is totally real.

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Kal

6/22/2017 04:12:37 pm

The mummy is a plaster fake. I have seen the videos and looked them over. It appears some creative artist made the thing and then shot x ray pictures of it.

He likely used some bone in it, from a series of animals he had found. Some of the bones resemble a dog, others a monkey, and a very fake plaster head sculpt, possibly using the elongated skull of some sort of feline or canid, but modified with a homonid mandible, possible a large ape. .

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Kal

6/22/2017 04:14:24 pm

They could have used one of those elongated human skulls, just the skull, but it looks more like they plastered and gluied an ape face onto a large mammal.

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Kal

6/26/2017 04:13:15 pm

I consulted a movie freak friend who is into monster flicks about this. He said it is totally a fake prop from a movie, and not even a very good one. You can make anything look like bone, even if you use some bones and some not. The head is clearly cast over in plaster, and the fingers added to in plaster. The alleged x ray is merely photoshop or some other inverse program.

The movie was a cheesy 1990s made for TV alien abduction film. Someone apparently kept the prop around for yucks, and years later it popped up here.

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